Women&#39;s undergarment



March 17, 1959 N. GOLD 2,877,770

WOMEN'S UNDERGARMENT Filed July 26, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENTOR. NATHAN G OLD AGENT March 17, 1959 NY GOLD 2,877,770

WOMEN'S UNDERGARMENT Filed July 26, 1956 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR. NATHAN G O L D AGENT United States Patent The invention relates to improvements in womens undergarments particularly those which combine a breast support or brassiere and an abdominal support in one garment. Y

Brassieres, especially of the strapless variety, are notoriously prone to sag or droop unless they are bound uncomfortably tightly about the chest of the wearer.

Abdominal supports, on the other hand, tend to move or ride up on the person of the wearer, particularly at their bottom edges; this tendency being augmented and enhanced by the ordinary movements of the wearer as in standing, walking, turning, reaching and so forth. This said tendency becomes especially pronounced and unmanageable when the wearer sits down, rises or works from a seated position-as a stenographer at a desk, for example. What the invention therefore proposes to do is to pro vide a garment embodying both of these facilities, i. e. the breast and abdominal supports, but wherein the respective sagging and riding up tendencies of the parts are set in opposition to each other by novel and efficient means whereby to preclude or nullify the disadvantages aforesaid.

The invention further visualizes the provision of an undergarment of the character described with a tensioning member for the abdominal support which co-operates ice portion of the undergarment with parts torn away to ex pose hidden details, and

Fig. 5 a side-elevational view of the instant under: garment as it would appear when worn by a seated person; the figure of such person being shown in dotted lines.

The portion of the instant undergarment incorporating the breast and abdominal supports and the counteractive means is its upper part, the bodice, designated in the drawing by the reference character B. Said bodice B is intended to cover the torso of the wearer from the arm pits to, at least, pelvic level.

Referring now to the drawing and in particular to Figs. 1, 2 and 3 thereof, said bodice B will be seen to comprise several collaterally arranged panels more or less conterminous at the pelvic level and serially intercom nected by their side edges to form a tubular structure; one of the panels, namely, the central back panel 10 (Fig. 3) incorporating separable fastening means such as the illustrated slide fastener 11. The material of the central back panel 10 is elastic and is uni-directionally stretchable in a horizontal or circumferential direction.

The panel 10 is flanked on each of its sides by inelasti c panels 1212 which are, in their turn, attached to elastic side panels 13-13 which connect to the respective edges of the front panel 14 which is, again, of inelastic material.

with and accentuates the function of the said counter- I active means under ordinary circumstances but is particularly useful in countering the extraordinary tendency of the abdominal support to ride up when the wearer sits, rises or works in a seated position.

It is, of course, a still further object of the invention to provide a described undergarment which conforms to the particular anatomical contours of the wearer and which affords a comfortable and unobtrusive fit thereto.

Further and other objects of the invention, more or less broad than the foregoing will be apparent from the hereinafter following description of the elements, parts and principles constituting the invention, a preferred embodiment whereof is illustrated by way of example only in the hereunto annexed drawing wherein like reference devices refer to like parts and wherein:

Fig. 1 is a front elevational view of the present undergarment, spread out as it would be if worn;

Fig. 2 is an elevational view thereof corresponding to Fig. 1 but taken partly from and illustrating a side of the said undergarment; a portion thereof being torn open to reveal concealed structural details thereof;

Fig. 3 a rear elevational view of the upper portion only thereof;

Fig. 4 an enlarged front elevational view of the upper It need hardly be pointed out that the assembly of a plurality of panels in the construction of the bodice B is herein visualized purely as a measure of convenience not only in manufacture but also for the purposes of description in this specification.- It should not, therefore, be construed as a limitation.

The upper part of the front panel 14 carries the breast cups 15-15 which are connected thereto at concavely arcuate joints 1616 containing the correspondingly arcuate stiffening elements 17-17. The breast cups '15 15 are, of course, laterally spaced on the front panel14 but actually approach very closely to each other; beingseparated, in this embodiment, by a short isthmus of front panel 14 as indicated in Fig. 4 by the numeral 18.

Welt 19 interconnects the upper edges of the breast cups 15-15 to and with the aforesaid isthmus 18.

The several panels enumerated, or some of them, are contoured to provide the bodice B with the narrowed waist 20 which, it will be appreciated, provides anchorage for the said bodice B and prevents it from riding show a plurality of stays 21 circumferentially spaced about the bodice B; these being contained within: stay tunnels 23 at the back 24 of the bodice B between the central back panel 10 and its flanking panels 12-12.

' An additional stay 21 is also disposed between each however, to merit special attention; these being particularly apparent from the enlarged view of Fig. 4.

It need hardly be pointed out that each stay 21 bears on the lower edge 22 of the bodice B. Despite that the stays 21 carried by the front panel 14 may terminate slightly above said lower bodice edge 22 to permit the front panel 14 to flex accordingly when the wearer is seated as in Fig. 5, they nevertheless continue to bear on the said lower edge 22.

The stays 21 on the front panel are arranged to provide three point support for each breast cup 15 as follows, namely, one at each extremity and one centrally thereof.

Further reference to Fig. 4 will reveal that the joint 16 by which each breast cup 15 is attached to the front panel 14 connects to the welt 19 at the two intersections designated in the drawing by the reference numerals 25-25; these points marking also the extremities of the breast cup 15. The stays 21 which support the breast cup 15 are arranged to bear directly on the said intersections 25-25 whereby the breast cups 15 may be said to be suspended therebetween. The third point of support is, of course, the centre of the joint 16 which contains the stiffener 17.

The breast cup extremities 25-25 confronting each other at the isthmus 18 may be supported by a common stay 21 as shown.

It will now be seen that any downward thrust of either or both breast cups 15-15 will be communicated through the stays 21 to the lower bodice edge 22 and will be resisted thereby. Conversely, any upward thrust of said edge 22 will be communicated to and resisted by the breast cups 15-15.

The bodice B being anchored to the person of the wearer by the narrowed waist 20, it must inevitably occur that both the breast and the abdominal supports will always remain in their appointed locations.

The inelastic construction of the front panel 14 also contributes notably to the efliciency of the present undergarment by preventing the stays 21-21 from shifting circumferentially of the bodice B and relative to each other. The expansive stresses of the stays 21 are therefore compelled to remain axial of the bodice B.

The tensioning member designated by the reference device T appears in this embodiment as inner and outer skirts 30-31 respectively, attached to and depending from the edge 22.

It will be recalled that the tendency of the lower bodice edge 22 to ride up is accentuated when the wearer is seated. However, it has also been noted that the seat portions of a womans clothes tend to be tensed when she is sitting down.

The use of skirts 30-31 for tensing the back of the bodice B when the wearer is seated is an outgrowth of a precedent concept of suspending a seat flap from the back part of the edge 22 whereby to ensure that when the wearer of a present undergarment is sitting down, she will sit on this flap and thereby hold the said bodice B against riding up.

This concept was abandoned, however, in favor of the present skirts 30-31 inasmuch as the latter also constitute an almost indispensable adjunct of modern female underapparel; obviating, as they do, the necessity for wearing a separate slip or petticoat.

Said skirts 30-31 also introduce and apply some Weight or ballast to the lower bodice edge 22 and thereby function to keep it from riding up even if the wearer is only standing.

Accentuation of the downward pull on the bodice B by skirts 30-31 is achieved by providing ruflles 32 on the inner surface of the outer skirt 31 as in Fig. 2 where by to cause it to flare out and thus increase the ballast by adding leverage to the weight of the outer skirt 3'1.

" What I claim as my invention is:

1. In an undergarment of the character described, a

bodice adapted to provide breast and abdominal supports formed of elastic and inelastic front and other panels contoured and dimensioned to provide a narrowed waist section and a highly elastic body-girdling abdominal portion of relatively substantial length below said waist section; separable fastening means incorporated in one of said panels; breast cups at the top of the said front panel; stays associated with said panels maintaining the separation of the top and bottom edges of said bodice, and at least one skirt secured to and depending from the bottom edge of said abdominal portion weighting and tensioning the said bodice throughout its length.

2. An undergarment as set forth in claim 1 wherein the front panel is inelastic.

3. In an undergarment of the character described, a bodice adapted to provide breast and abdominal supports formed of serially interconnected elastic and inelastic panels including front, back, and side panels contoured and dimensioned to provide a narrowed waist section and a highly elastic body-girdling abdominal portion of relatively substantial length below said waist section; separable fastening means incorporated in one of said panels; breast cups attached to and carried at the top of said front panel; stays associated with said panels maintaining the separation of the top and bottom edges of said bodice; some of the stays being arranged to bear on the extremities of the breast cups and others being arranged to bear on the attachment of the breast cups to the front panel intermediate the aforesaid extremities, and at least one skirt secured to and depending from the bottom edge of said abdominal portion weighting and tensioning the said bodice throughout its length.

4. In an undergarment of the character described,'a bodice adapted to provide breast and abdominal supports formed of serially interconnected elastic and inelastic panels including front, back and side panels contoured and dimensioned to provide a narrowed waist section and a highly elastic body-girdling abdominal portion of relatively substantial length below said waist section; separable fastening means incorporated in one of said panels; laterally spaced breast cups at the top of said front panel being attached thereto at concavely arcuate joints; relatively inflexible stiffening elements in said joints; a welt interconnecting the upper edges of said breast cups to and with portions of the upper edge of said front panel and forming intersections with the ends of the arcuate joints by which the breast cups are attached to said front panel, said intersections defining also the lateral extremities of said breast cups, and stays associated with said panels maintaining the separation of the top and bottom edges of said bodice; some of the stays being arranged to bear on each breast cup at three points, namely at its two extremities and on the joint by which it is attached to the front panel intermediately of the said two extremities, and at least one skirt secured to and depending from the bottom edge of said abdominal portion weighting and tensioning the said bodice throughout its length.

5. In an undergarment of the character described, a bodice adapted to provide breast and abdominal supports formed of serially interconnected elastic and inelastic panels including front, back and side panels contoured and dimensioned to provide a narrowed waist section and a highly elastic body-girdling abdominal portion of relatively substantial length below said waist section; separable fastening means incorporated in one of said panels; laterally spaced breast cups at the top of said front panel being attached thereto at concavely arcuate joints; relatively inflexible stiffening elements in said joints; a welt interconnecting the upper edges of said breast cups to and with portions of the upper edge of said front panel and forming intersections with the ends of the arcuate joints by which the breast cups are attached to said front panel, said intersections defining also the lateral extremitiesof said breast cups; stays associated with said panels maintaining the separation of the top and bottom edges of said bodice; some of the stays being arranged to bear on each breast cup at three points, namely at its two extremities and on the joint by which it is attached to the front panel intermediately of the said two extremities, and at least one skirt secured to and depending from the bottom edge of said abdominal portion weighting and tensioning the said bodice throughout its length.

6. The undergarment set forth in claim 5 wherein the said side and front panels are respectively formed of elastic and inelastic materials.

7. The undergarment set forth in claim 5 wherein front panel is formed of inelastic material.

8. The undergarment set forth in claim 5 wherein the said side and front panels are respectively formed of elastic and inelastic materials.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,290,954 Fox July 28, 1942 2,671,218 Luhr Mar. 9, 1954 2,697,225 Roth Dec. 21, 1954 2,760,199 Champagne Aug. 28, 1956 2,787,790 Kahn Apr. 9, 1957 

